


i wish you would kiss me 'til the point of paralysis

by CallicoKitten



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: (sort of), First Kiss, Fluff, Idiots in Love, Multi, Pining, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-11
Updated: 2016-12-11
Packaged: 2018-09-08 00:02:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8821567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CallicoKitten/pseuds/CallicoKitten
Summary: The problem with Ray, Nate thinks, is that he has this awful habit of making whoever he's speaking to out to be the most important person in the world to him.





	

**Author's Note:**

> takes place in the same universe as probably all my other legends fics but you needn't have read them
> 
> this is short and silly and i want to write more for these idiots of the fluffy variety but i also really, really want to write this mess of angst when len comes back bc i think ray/len might be my favourite.
> 
> anyway, title is from heart swells/pacific daylight time by los camp which are apparently my go to band for this bunch of irresponsible losers.

Nate's always thought of himself as a kind of forward thinking man, by which he means, he's tried not to take the amount of men and women who can't handle his condition _personally._

"So," Sara asks, four drinks in at the end of his first week. "You got a girl back home, Nate?"

Nate's a few drinks behind her but it doesn't matter, he's so dizzy with the prospect of time travel and time ships and time _everything_ that he's probably drunk enough for the both of them. Everyone but Mick's gone to bed, he's passed out and snoring at the table.

Nate shakes his head. He thinks about elaborating but opening up about the whole _getting a paper cut could literally kill me_ thing will probably land him a one way ticket back to his office in Star City.

"Boyfriend?" Sara presses.

Nate smiles, "Not had much luck there, either."

Sara nods, "Well, take it from me; romance and time travel don't mix well."

"So there's a rule against office romance here, then?" Nate jokes.

Sara laughs, "Oh, _I wish._ "

-

It's about a month before Nate realises what she means, heads down to the kitchen in the middle of the night and walks in on Mick and Ray.

He thinks they're fighting at first, Mick's got Ray pinned against the wall, speaking too him in a low steady growl, but then Mick bites at Ray's neck where it meets his shoulder and Ray whines.

"You like that, do ya, pretty?" Mick rumbles, his hands down the front of Ray's pants. Mick rolls his hips.

Nate jerks back, cheeks warm, decides he can probably do without a grilled cheese tonight.

He walks in on Sara and Amaya next, post-Japan, drunk on sake and giggling between kisses and Mick and Amaya a few weeks after that, post-Chicago. They're in Mick's room, Amaya in his lap, his hands bracketing her hips and it's a strange enough scene that Nate grinds to a halt, staring for a moment and Jax - a few feet behind him - tuts loudly.

"Could you guys _at least_ close the door?"

"Shut up, kid," Mick says. "Don't tell me you don't like the view."

Jax rolls his eyes, steps forwards and shuts Mick's door for him. He shakes his head at Nate, "I think we should start asking Gideon to override the doors."

"Yeah, I think I've walked in on just about everyone with everyone by this point," Nate says.

Jax snorts, "You're lucky you weren't here when Snart and Captain Hunter were. It was like living in one of those Mexican shows Grey watches when he thinks no one's looking."

Predictably, Nate's brain hones in on the wrong part of that information. He snorts, "Professor Stein watches telenovelas?"

Jax shrugs it off like it's nothing. "He says they help him think." He huffs, "At least Mick's actually using his _bedroom_ this time. The amount of times I've walked in on him and Ray is making me _seriously_ consider erasing one of them from history."

"You don't think Ray will mind about that?" Nate asks, jerking his head towards Mick's room.

Jax shrugs, "I stopped trying to keep up ages ago."

-

He keeps a close eye on Ray after that, watches for any flicker of jealousy when Amaya brushes past Mick on the bridge, when they snark-flirt over dinner, he's Ray's friend, it's his job to look out for him after all.

There's nothing though. No hint of pain when they touch or laugh or smile at each other. If anything, Ray looks _happy_ when he sees them together.

"They make kind of an odd couple, don't you think?" Nate says to him, one evening.

They've just fixed an aberration in Ancient Rome; Sara's given them a rare night off because she's been quite taken with the daughter of a Senator with rather lofty ambitions. They're parked out by a beach, far enough from city that no one's likely to stumble upon them.

"Oh, I don't know," Ray says, grinning stupidly. "She keeps him in line."

-

It becomes a _thing_ a few days later when they've found an aberration in the late Jurassic and Ray goes quiet until they land and then says, "I think I'll sit this one out, if that's okay?"

He's looking at Sara and Sara frowns, "I would have thought you'd like the idea of dinosaurs, Ray?"

"I do - that is to say I _did_ ," Ray says, smiling weakly. "I kind of got my fill of them in the Cretaceous though."

Which, yeah. They haven't really talked about that. Ray doesn't mention it, not casually, not at all. Honestly, Nate had kind of forgotten about it. He looks over at him; his hands are clenching and unclenching, trembling slightly.

"Ah," Sara says. "Well, I suppose we can manage without you. After all, how tricky can ten foot lizards really be?"

"Great," Ray says, brightly. "I'll pack you guys some lunches."

"We don't need - " Sara starts but Ray's already gone, barrelling off the bridge and heading for the kitchen. Sara shakes her head.

"Should someone stay with him?" Amaya asks.

"Better you than me," Mick rumbles, nudging her.

"I don't mind doing it," Nate says.

Sara makes a face, "I don't know, Nate, you might be pretty useful out there. We don't really know what we're going to find and I'd rather not get eaten."

"As the only one of us present to actually fight one of those things, I'm sure we'll do fine." He holds up his gun, "They don't seem to like fire much."

Amaya rolls her eyes.

"Alright," Sara says. "But keep your comms on in case we need you, alright?"

He finds Ray in the kitchen; he's standing at the counter, fidgeting with the bread knife, running his thumb along the sharp, ridged edges.

"They've left," Nate says from the doorway. "You don't need to make them anything."

Ray drops the knife with a clatter, turns to Nate with a faint smile, "Oh, good, because Mick's eaten all the peanut butter again." He's jittery, fidgeting with his hands, interlocking his fingers, drumming them against each other, into his pockets, out of his pockets.

"You wanna watch a movie or something?" Nate suggests.

"Well, I was going to - "Ray starts."But yeah, that sounds nice. Maybe not Jurassic Park, though."

Nate smiles, "Not even the newest one?"

They've converted one of the rooms of the Waverider into a sort of den, brought in some couches and soft chairs and a television. They pick some mindless Sci-Fi film about Guy Pearce breaking into a space prison and Ray spends the whole time correcting the science of it. He relaxes in stages, sits a little looser until he's sprawled across the couch, bent forwards towards the television. His shoulder brushes against Nate's.

When the movie's over he looks back at Nate, smiling brilliantly and well, if Nate wasn't head over heels before he's got no chance at escaping that _now._ Nate's comms buzz in his ears, " _We're all set here_ ," Sara says. " _On our way back now_."

"They're on their way back," he relays and Ray blinks like for a moment he has no idea what Nate's talking about and then he smiles, "Great! Think they'll be hungry? Maybe we should make something."

He's up and to the door before Nate has a chance to respond but he ducks back in to give Nate another warm smile and say, "This was really nice, Nate. Thanks."

-

The problem with Ray, Nate thinks, is that he has this awful habit of making whoever he's speaking to out to be the most important person in the world to him. He's thinking back to sunshine smiles and arm pats and shoulder clasps and he's always had a weak spot for dumb geniuses with hearts of gold.

"Do you think Ray likes me?" he finds himself asking Sara over drinks in Rip Hunter's office. They're still periodically searching through it for any hint of the amulet the Speedster stole just in case anything moves around in there.

"Uh, he made you a garish suit and he follows you around like a puppy so I'm gonna go with _yes,_ " she frowns at him over the rim of her glass. "Don't you guys spend all your time bro-ing it up in the lab? You really think Ray's got the where-with-all to fake being your _bro_?"

Nate smiles into the book he's leafing through. "Yeah, I didn't really mean it like that."

Sara sets down her glass, " _Really_? So you're saying you _like_ like him?"

"If there's a more adult way of saying that yes, I think I do."

Sara grins at him, positively wolfish.

"So do you think he likes me?" Nate asks, again.

Sara sits back in her chair look all sorts of smug. "Have you tried talking to him about it?" Nate's look must give away his incredulity because she shakes her head, "Right. Because we're being _more adult_ about things."

" _No,_ " Nate insists, "I just don't want to make things awkward." Which is true. It might be _partially_ fear that Ray'll say no but it's mostly that, mostly the fear that the easy friendship they've built up together will fall apart.

"Mm," Sara hums. "I see your point."

"So, one last time: do you think he likes me?"

Sara runs a hand through her hair, tosses it out as she considers. "You know what, Nate, I have no idea. You could try asking Mick."

Nate stares at her. "I really have no idea if you're being serious or not?"

Sara smiles enigmatically. "Either way, if you hurt him I'll find the darkest corner of history and leave you there."

"Hey, why are you so certain it'll be _me_ doing the hurting?"

Sara rolls her eyes.

-

"So, you got the hots for Haircut, have you, Pretty?" Mick says, unnecessarily loudly.

Nate closes his eyes, full of immediate regret.

"I can see that," Mick says, he downs the rest of his beer and goes back the fiddling with his gun. As far as Nate can see, Mick's not actually _doing_ anything to it, he's not fixing it or adjusting its barrel or whatever the hell people do with guns like that. He's got the sneaking suspicion that Mick's playing with his gun to look dangerous or intimidating, or something.

"I can't help you though," Mick rumbles. "Sorry. I knew Palmer liked me because I could see it in him. Helps when you look like _this_ , you know."

"I bet it does," Nate mutters, as he leaves.

-

If they weren't time travelling, Nate could just ask Ray if he wants to go for coffee with him or something. Or he could drink more than is strictly sensible and blurt it out over a facility dinner (which he's done not once but _twice._ )

It'd make things a whole lot simpler.

Even if he said no they could just avoid each other for a few weeks until it blew over. It's kind of hard to do that when you're trapped in a relatively small ship with each other twenty-four-seven.

Being trapped in a relatively small ship with each other twenty-four-seven when no one else is willing to spa with the object of your affections. Makes things awkward.

"I've made some adjustments to the Atom suit," Ray tells him excitedly over breakfast. "I've been talking it over with Cisco, I think I might be able to get you this time!"

"Mm. We'll see," Nate says.

"Break my ship and we won't be coming after you this time," Sara warns.

 " _Whose_ ship?" Jax interjects.

-

Ray's new suit is a lot more mobile than the old one but Nate's _made of steel_ and Ray's not about to use his blasters on the ship so in the end; it's not that much of a fair fight.

He ends up with Ray pinned beneath him, pinning Ray's wrists above his head. "Gotcha," Nate grins.

Ray struggles, "I was going easy on you."

Nate lets him up, "Round two then?"

He pins Ray again. Nate smirks, "You were going easy on me?" He guesses.

"Well, yeah, 'course I was. I couldn't risk actually _hurting_ you."

"Oh, you think you could _hurt_ me? I'm made of _steel,_ remember?" He shifts his arms because he can, flesh bleeding into cold metal and Ray jerks at the sudden change. Nate shifts back and grins at him.

"Don't forget who made you that way," Ray says. He licks his lips, "How about round three? No suit, no steel. Just you and me?"

Nate lets him up, "You're on."

-

Round three ends with Ray pinned again - more through dumb luck and clumsiness than any real skill on Nate's part - less annoyed and more breathless with laughter. "This wasn't my a-game," he promises.

It's a less clean pin than round one or two, Nate's sprawled out on top of him, pinning limbs down wherever he can. Nate grins, "Sure it wasn't."

"It's not. It really isn't," Ray insists. "I mean, I usually don't trip over my own feet but - " he trails off and this is the part where Nate's supposed to let him up so they can straighten out and head back up to the rest of the team but -

He likes the way Ray's body feels against his, the way he can feel Ray's chest rise and fall.

Ray's starting to get fidgety though. Nate should let him up. He really, really should.

Ray opens his mouth. _Nate, this is the part you need to let me up, remember, buddy?_ he's going to say, Nate knows. And Nate will laugh and say he was just tired and _that_ will become a whole thing but then Ray says, "Sara says you like me." Blurts, really.

And then he goes scarlet and closes his eyes briefly, "I mean - I meant to say - _God,_ I'm so bad at this - " And it's just so - it's just so _Ray._

"I kinda wanna kiss you," Nate says and the words are out of his mouth before he's really thought them through and _fuck,_ he can play this out if it goes south right? Turn this into a joke or a game or something if Ray freaks out.

But he doesn't freak out.

"So, uh, round four?" Ray says. His tone is kind of shaky, he's nervous Nate realises, eyes darting from Nate's mouth to Nate's eyes and back again so Nate _does._

It starts out rushed, clumsy because right up until the moment he lets go of Ray's wrists and Ray's arms come up to tug him closer that Ray's going to push him away. It becomes slow and easy, Ray's hands slide down and then up again, under Nate's shirt and Nate shudders.

He trails his own hand down towards Ray's jeans, pausing to break the kiss and say, "Is this okay?"

"Yeah," Ray says, breathlessly. He smiles, "Yeah."


End file.
